In January 2012, Atelier Kempe Thill in collaboration with Fres architects won the competition for fifty apartments, a dentists practice, a mother – child – care center and an underground parking at the Porte de Montmartre in Paris for the public housing corporation Paris Habitat. The apartments are in terms of budget within the lowest financing categories of public social housing for rent. The site is part of the typical former industrial estates and areas with 1960’s apartment complexes along the boulevard Périphérique that are going to be changed into contemporary housing areas.

The fact that the project is located in the city of Paris with its great history, in particular from the 19th century was an important source of inspiration. The questions that were rising were such as: what would be the most adequate contemporary theme for urban housing for the French context? What would be a type of living that is not the “Existenzminimum” but has really substantial and coherent qualities that it could even become the basis for a prototype to be developed for the 21st century?

A typology with a consequently applied winter garden has this potential. Therefore this became the conceptual basis for the project. The reason for this potential lies in the fact that the winter garden next to it’s recreations functions fulfills a series of functions: From the perspective of the climate, it serves as a buffer and captures the energy of the sun. Acoustically, it primarily serves as a cushion against traffic noise. Spatially the winter garden forms not only an extension for the largely glazed apartments, but also assures a degree of privacy. The winter garden can also be read as a contemporary interpretation of the typical balconies along the façades in many of the Haussmann apartment buildings.

For all these reasons the winter garden is taken as the basic concept for the project. A typology allowing such a concept in the most consequent way had to be developed, as well architecturally as well economically.

This typology has been found in a compact block, an urban villa of 19m width and 20 m length as a result of a systematical research on costs of housing and building regulations in France. Two of these buildings are grouped together, separated by a common courtyard. In the basement underneath the two volumes a parking garage is developed over the whole length of the project. On the ground floor level of each building the public facilities are positioned. From the first floor on until the fifth floor apartments are organized around an access core. This very compact typology allows in terms of budget to organize around the entire building a wintergarden with glass sliding doors on the outside. The wintergarden varies in depth according to the needs of the interiors of the houses. Living rooms get that way a wider wintergarden to put some small table and chairs, sleeping rooms a smaller one to put a chair and flower pots and so on.

The apartments are nearly all corner – oriented with daylight for all kitchens.

For the organization of the building the intention was to find a prototype for French urban housing in general and for the city of Paris in particular, an integrated design wherein partition of apartments, parking garage, structure and all other technical requirements form an inseparable organic synthesis. The aim was a consequently rectangular, all – sided typology with a general value that can react on different urban situations. Loadbearing walls should bring the loads straight from the roof into the foundations without adding the cost of intense super structures.

In the built project the northern volume is set up according to these principles. In the southern volume it was actually more practical in terms of all the programmatic requirements to cut the building diagonally while keeping the same length of the façades towards rue Maurice Grimaud. With this step the program could be spread in a logical way over the entire complex and the courtyard opened towards the neighboring buildings in the west.

To reach a rationalist systematic with all floors in the same organization and size within the very complex requirements of the Parisian Local Urban plan (PLU), it was necessary to reduce the thickness of the structural floor plates to 20cm, without any additional cement layer or floating screed which is possible due to acoustic requirements.

The typology of the compact block is a new interpretation of the classical urban villa. This is also the basis for the integration in the sensitive urban situation at the Porte de Montmartre where the required density is very high and at the same time an open block is very wishful that allows views through its edge towards the Parc Réné Binet and other surroundings.

It is not only the public program that gives a great possibility to root the project in the public space. It is even more special that the project is not one single building, but a small ensemble of two volumes, which gives the project a different dimension. It is morphologically open and still a strong entity to be anchored properly in its context.

The space between the two buildings serves as a collective courtyard. This courtyard assures on one hand the access to both buildings. On the other hand common functions such as the concierge, the multifunctional space for the tenants, but also the bicycle storages and the rooms for the garbage are directly oriented towards the courtyard. In that sense the courtyard can be used also for activities, especially in the multifunctional space.

The courtyard is provided with two beds for plants that are separated by the walkways. The beds are set up in a height that their edges can serve as benches to sit down. To assure the necessary security for the project, the courtyard is separated from the street by a 4m high fence, comparable to the iron fences of ancient Paris mansions.

The main question for the set – up of the apartments was: how could it be possible to give these small apartments a generous and open spatial character?

Nearly all apartments are corner oriented, there’s nearly no mono – orientation. The partition of the apartments is set up as systematic as possible. Sleeping rooms are positioned on the shorter side of the building towards the courtyard, living rooms towards the street and the neighboring plot.

The spatial backbone for the majority of the apartments lies in the kitchen that is situated in the corner of the building as the prolongation of the living space. This place was chosen because it is the noblest space of the apartment as reminiscence to the French passion for cooking. The kitchen is only separated from the living by light sliding doors. Thanks to this, a panoramic effect could be created giving the living space a visual generosity because it simply opens up towards the outside and therefore gives more respiration to the quite limited surfaces of the apartments. The corners are freed of structural columns, which make them look very open. The winter garden that also goes around the corner strengthens this effect even more.

All effort has been taken to open the façade as much as possible to give the apartments a generous visual connection with the winter gardens.

The winter gardens are provided with full glass façades from floor to ceiling to reach a maximum generosity. The fire department regards winter gardens as internal spaces. That means that actually a distance of 60cm of non – combustible façade material has to be respected. This distance could be reached with the addition of all vertical and horizontal elements such as the thickness of the floor plate or a slight elevation at the foot detail of the handrail.

The materialization of the project tries to capture faithfully the French spirit: a modern, even modernistic style and light and even shiny materialization. A maximum of glass, some corrugated sheets, and the concrete of the winter gardens are the dominating elements. The building is set up horizontally and the corners are visually open giving spatial quality to the interior and the exterior.

This “industrial” materialization making the appearance of the project for a great part independent from craftsmanship was unconsciously also a great help for the partly adventurous execution of the buildings’ concrete structure.

The façade forms an interface between the public realm and the privacy of the apartments. It represents and expresses the living behind it in a direct way, still by covering the houses with the glass of the sliding doors the formal clarity towards the public space is assured.

The building is detailed in a flush way to reach as much as possible a visual tension to the glass and all other materials. That way the glass corners of the ground floor assuring the open character are emphasized and joined with the upper floors with the winter garden sliding doors. The corrugated sheets and the fence of the courtyard are in the same line as the glass to also unify the two buildings and reduce the effect of a here nearly unavoidable collage of different materials.

The corrugated sheets are colored champagne as the aluminum of the window frames. The color was chosen to create a more noble image for social housing, anchored in the 1950’s modernism and to counterbalance the cheap and stigmatized view on social housing.

Studioninedots and Lingotto are proud to have won the tender for an iconic new building on Lelylaan, Amsterdam with our design that has a collective ‘Super Space’ as its heart. West Beat has a vast, transparent ground floor – a continuous public space. From a physical and programmatic sense, residents, businesses and passersby experience West Beat as a lively connector. In the tender phase, the project convinced the City of Amsterdam with its quality of design and concept, and approach to sustainability.

Developed in a team led by Studioninedots and Lingotto, West Beat joins the group of new hotspots in Nieuw-West. West Beat is a complex that combines entrepreneurship with affordable housing for young global citizens. For the programming of the building’s functions, project ambassadors were already engaged during the planning phase to start encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit and emerging creative sector, rooted in Nieuw-West.

The dynamic they generate will be facilitated in the core of the building: West Beat’s Super Space. Measuring 65 x 50 metres, the space spans 8.5-m high and has a construction of sculptural arches. Spatially this results in an arrangement of intimate spaces; structurally it enables the floor space underneath to remain open, which lends the Super Space flexibility of use. Residents, visitors and entrepreneurs come together here for the workspaces, hospitality venues, exhibitions and concerts. On the façade, the large arches seemingly showcase the cultural activities that take place behind, with the largest at the corners curving as an inviting gesture.

The building fronts all sides, and contains approximately 150 apartments situated around a shared elevated courtyard. Construction is planned for 2018.

The City of Amsterdam has earmarked Lelylaan and its surroundings as one of the fastest growth areas for housing. West Beat contributes to the West Beat contributes to the urban feel and social ambitions of the area and functions to strengthen the concept of ‘Hop over the Ring’; the link between the city centre and Nieuw-West.

Our cities are becoming more compact. In this context Studioninedots sees an increasing need for better collective spaces and public spaces. Its architecture creates characteristic spatial interventions on dense urban sites that function as catalysts for meeting, exchange, connection and activities between people.

Villa Muurame is a wooden 3-story single-family home by Lake Jyväsjärvi in Jyväskylä, Finland. The spatial elements of the house (approx. 3m wide, 7.8 longa and 3.1 high) were pre-fabricated during the winter in the Muurametalot housing factory in Karunki, Finnish Lapland and the elements were erected in Jyväskylä after the snow had melted. The timber used is extremely slow grown and high quality Lappish spruce and pine.

The house is getting more private as one moves up the floors. The ground floor is an open space with collective functions, the bedrooms are on the second floor and on the third floor you get naked. Each floor has their own terrace or balcony and the second floor opens to an extensive roof garden.

The house is warmed up during the harsh Finnish winters with geothermal heating, which also cools down the house during summers.

“A contemporary apartment, with a clear connection to the modern design of collective housing in the beginning of Brasília”. That was the guidance, which our clients gave us at the time, today our dearest friends, in the beginning of the architectonic design to remodel the apartment, located in middle of Brasília.

Once establish the concept of the design, the intentions were to reach out to a solution that appease the dynamic of modern life and the peculiar way of living in the residential scale of Brasília, idealized by Lúcio Costa.

With the free view, spatial generosities that make the “Urbs” of Brasília what it is, are a few characteristics that are impregnated in the design of the Estúdio MRGB in Brasília. Clearly appears more or less, depending on the theme that the architects face during the exercise of the daily job. As for the apartment MA the fluidity, permeability and spatial generosity are there clearly in the social spaces such as living room, dining room and work space. All the spaces are fully integrated, and the boundaries are configured subtlety, protected each and every one there functions. The view has no obstacles, all rooms allow their full comprehension, clear and objective of the socialization spaces.

The esteem of our clients and ours of the Estúdio MRGB, for the design of the 60’s are insured by the furniture that has an important role, and creates the perfect and intended atmosphere. The pieces that integrate the spaces were designed by the greatest masters, architect Sérgio Rodrigues and Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Florence Knoll a Charles Ray Eames contributes equally, bringing the spaces the perfect harmony with the contemporary furniture, concepts of the new and promising generation of Brazilian designers, Jader Almeida and Fernando Prado.

The borderline between the master bedroom and social area, are defined by a wooden panel, located in the back of the dining room.

Integrated into the large wooden panel a door to the master bedroom, which blends with the vertical wood strips of the panel. Those elements grant privacy, comfort and the necessary wellbeing for the perfect use of the spaces intimate and social. On the opposite side of the panel is located a gallery carefully design to enhance the beauty of the art collected by the couple. The narrow relation to the city, a panel of personalized tiles with geometric forms was designed by Estúdio MRGB in reference to the great artist Athos Bulcão, which can be seen in the main buildings of the city of Brasília, became a reference for all architects, artist a citizen of Brasília.

«My role as an architect is to ensure that this important density is consistent with the quality of the site and with each workspace. This density is assumed as a positive constraint, likely by nature to propel us towards the future. Les Dunes project differentiates itself from others by its architectural identity, it offers a new image of modernity through a innovation in construction in a gentle rupture / breakaway from what’s previously been done over the past 30 years. The entity as a whole is more than a building, it is a landscape.» Anne Démians

INTERNET’S INFLUENCE ON TERTIARY INNOVATION

Following two decades of technological upheaval directly related to the Internet, changes in society have emerged with their consequences on our ways of living.

Heralding a new era, digital tools profoundly boost individual and social exchanges and modes of expression. Our working attitudes are thus modified and our relationship to space is shaken. This digital transition impacts work relations and manifests itself in the office, but how are they (re)drawn?

The new division of Société Générale in Val de Fontenay, in eastern Paris, responds to this strategic challenge common to many large corporations. It is emblematic of the digital transformation of the banking sector as a whole. It is called Les Dunes, listed as a «marker»/»reference point» in the commercial real estate sector. Winner of the international competition launched in 2011 by the banking group, architect Anne Démians designed these 90,000 square meters of office space that is shortly due to welcome 5,000 employees.

THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL : AN OPPORTUNITY

The birth of this creation is directly related to the evolution of Société Générale and the symbolic importance it accords to its adaptation to the infotech world and to its change of management. At the turn of 2010, this banking establishment – created 150 years ago, present in over 76 countries, serving 30 million customers – is reorganizing itself with the priority of recentering its business model within the context of the new global economy.

Françoise Mercadal-Delasalles, Director of Resources and Innovation of Société Générale Group, is responsible for implementing these managerial and spatial changes, inevitable, as this process requires a precise qualification of the utilization of collectively used spaces.

As this member of Société Générale Group’s Executive Committee wrote in a manifesto published in the Journal of Financial Economics [No. 120 – December 2015] «We must observe how the digital relationship has changed our physical relation to work. Coming to a soulless office in the morning to plunge head first into a computer alone behind a desk, or worse, in the middle of an open space, no longer makes any sense. Coming to the office has to provide something more. New workplaces will respond to the human need for warmth and sharing. To meet the challenge of this change, the very piloting of this gigantic project must integrate the concepts and methods of our digital age: co-creation, collaboration and cooperation.»

The analysis of this competition and its technical specifications illustrates Société Générale’s willingness to carve out this project of a disruptive nature from the ongoing transition and the opportunities it affords.

Through his exchanges with Académie Française member Michel Serres, François Mercadal-Delasalles wholeheartedly embraced the philosophy that states «every major rupture in the history of humanity led to depriving mankind of faculties, but every revolution brings new ones. With the widespread diffusion of information technology, it gains a new set of individual, group, network and knowledge connections and with these, an ability to multiply invention and creation.»

Completely lucid concerning the bet he accepted – relational intelligence as a response to the erasure of our pyramidical schemes

-the banking group had to design a new tertiary world. His initial premise provides three guidelines to his program:

– To integrate the real estate of the site, a constraint which has a direct impact on its architecture.

– To construct twenty-first century office spaces with good/clean energy performance, spaces adapted to the expectations of the new generations of workers in terms of reversibility and modularity, up to and including the company’s canteen.

Because she has been innovating in tertiary properties for the last ten years, Anne Démians sees this competition as a means of continuing her quest to innovate within the urban territory. She created a «landscaped building» for the Société Générale which is characterized by something totally compatible with our digital age. This is a pioneering architectural act that prefigures the mobility of the immobile.

«The facades become highly sophisticated technological objects, to the point of finding a unique relationship with the interior, itself modified by the mass intrusion of a digitally born spirit. Our behavior, in relation to how we work, is obviously different. With infotech, we have less need for daylight, while needs relating to comfort or ergonomics are integrated with, however, a superior rendition in production.

For several years now we have seen dramatic changes to our ways of living and working. What I propose in this project is firstly to consider the question of materials. There is this great idea that through the evolution of a facade, there may be new materials to explore, other than those with which we’ve been filling our sketchbooks for years.

Until this project, Société Genérale used metal and glass in all its constructions. Here, the idea is that if a man takes his place at the heart of such a collegial and productive operation as a bank, there must be a manner of expressing it materially. The proliferation of functional layers that comprise the facade, including the one more present, wood (a reconstituted wood that needs no maintenance) gives more depth of field to the eye. This wood does not exist in Europe and it was only after several months of research in Japan that I could fully understand all of its qualities. So I travelled to Japan meet its Japanese manufacturers who, perhaps because of their insular fragility, are several years ahead of Europe in terms of industrial research.

This wood is 100% reconstituted from recycled wood, and is, itself, 100% recyclable. And we imported it to propose it as a major and communicative symbol of this new project. The stakes were high. More than 200 kms of wood had to be posed in the form of wood strips.

It is a real concern to produce and build consistency and to ensure that the architecture itself is a true act of intelligent production. There is the passive dimension of the proposed entities. 90 000 m2, three buildings, oriented east/west and south-facing gardens. The terrain was 23,000 m2 for 100,000 m2 of construction. I had the idea of folding the terrain up, like a sheet of paper and of creating three waves that would contain the essential part of the surfaces. Between them, a herbarium, gardens and wood on the ground to give the feeling of continuing the same universe.

Two scales are positioned in complementarity. They support this stated need to of a reconstructed nature, in relation to light, strongly present in every part of the structure. Patios are integrated in a lower floor of protected and shared spaces. Because, with no fewer than 5,500 people expected in this location, the goal was to create constantly evolving work and meeting spaces. A central pavilion and an indoor street contain a Business Center and cafeterias / cafés. Almost 13 000 m2 of space is available to the company.

The staircases connect various distribution networks with the idea of providing an interface between the defined areas’ usage, but with a potential for requalification of the space, if necessary. The Interfacing of the interior spaces, fluidly straying into the reception areas, is particularly representative of the company’s unique mindset.

Les Dune’s space accompanies the integration of infotech. The latter promotes working over a longer time range, making intensely productive sequences cross with more relaxed ones, interacting together. Workpaces are changing in their destination, but with increasingly indistinct boundaries, while their design is extremely precise. It is also possible to envisage a smooth crosspollination between work and complementary activities, without a sharp break.

Here we are now at the heart of the identification. Until now, glass facades expressed the power of the company. Now, we must slightly shift towards a more individual expression. We are also – I must insist on this point – replicating individual requirements of generating new ways to of using space.

There are several means of perception stemming from this intention. The outer blades (east and west) are simply sunshades. They reduce direct light penetrating the offices. When closed, the covers are quite shiny. They are made entirely in aluminum. And it is the contrast between these two materials that creates the thickness of the facade, giving it a special feature that replaces the thicknesses produced by stone and concrete by new methods to recreate the effect of this thickness.

«We must promote a company where everyone is more available, but at the same time, we feel the need to leave the virtual character of infotech behind to try to embody the physical. This is new and daring experiment.»

Société Générale Real Estate Director and master developer of the project, Jean-Marc Castaignon thinks that Anne Démians convinced the jury «because her discourse didn’t impose an object or a concept on us, even though her architecture is very distinctive, but instead, she presented her vision to us, which played in her favor.

Since its inception, Société Générale has had a strong architectural culture as shown by its various addresses; its historic headquarters at 29, Boulevard Haussmann redesigned in 1912 by architect Jacques Hermant in the Art Nouveau style; the Twin Towers of La Défense created by Andrault and Parat; the Granite tower designed by Christian de Portzamparc; the Julia building signed by Oscar Niemeyer in Fontenay-sous-Bois. Today, the Les Dunes complex, totally connected to and located opposite the suburban train station of Val de Fontenay (RER A, Eole, 30 000 passengers per day) is an «organic» building: its horizontal architecture contrasts with the verticality of the towers of la Défense, promoting the shared communal areas. «It will be a lively place where people come to work together, where these multi-hierarchic, multi-skilled horizontal communities can be put together and dispersed easily at each new business venture, a place that will give way to a collective intelligence,» assures Françoise Mercadal-Delasalles.

Office buildings housing 5,000 employees usually refer to a tower block. In vertical mode, Anne Démians preferred the triptych of a horizontal composition which takes the form of east / west-oriented bands positioned to take advantage of the transversal light. Les Dunes are designed as five aligned buildings that seem to rise from an earth accordion-pleated like a sheet of paper by the architect. Her project voluntarily stands out from the traditional assembly of islets and proposes a constructed landscape of smoothened reliefs and invariably seeded. valleys. The landscape thus becomes dense and energised.

It places in context the naves that form an urban room whose unity is comprehensible, although it cannot be grasped at a single glance. It is a succession of living sequences, active buildings, peaceful gardens and active perspectives that intensify with the play of transparencies. The landscape is undulating and the vigour of the ground seems to make the trees grow. The whole contributes to the city by an unprecedented bringing together of a low density residential fabric and a lively inhabited topography.

.Les Dunes are distinguished by two principles: dispensing with boundaries between the interior and exteriors, and the depersonalizing effect of verticality in the production and practised spaces. In contrast, the horizontal suites energize and translate the final object into a series of smoothly gliding prospects.

Anne Demians’ fundamental idea for the project is to use wood as a structural element to construct the image of this new site. Considered a generic material that extends all the way to the building’s framework, wood weaves links, which have become obligatory, between the upper and lower gardens, floors and facades. These three naves, appropriate to the scale of the plot, are embedded in the organic garden matter. The views are multiple and overlapping. We can look out over the city, as we can look inside.

SOLIDS AND VOIDS

An «organic» wood envelope covers the buildings with a single curved gesture to soften the angles, also serving as sun protection giving the whole and a natural, rustic tone. This envelope is reinforced by the woodland and landscaped spaces that occupy all the empty zones of the site while the buildings are all served by a long interior street of double height. The partition is thus designed to create an alternate between the solid and empty spaces, between the constructed and landscaped dimensions.

The trapezoid-shaped terrain is intended to provide 90,000 square meters on a total surface area limited to 23 000 square meters. The large buildings, by their continuity of verticality and horizontality, increase the available surface areas.

GROUND PLAN

The arrangement of the three buildings is preponderant. As the perfect synthesis to draw the site’s character together. This articulation of the buildings’ volumes:

• Provides an identical sun protection, quality of light and views to all offices by its East-West orientation

• Naturally illuminates the gardens by its North-South orientation for enjoyment of the outdoor spaces

• Provides an opening towards the town

• Proposes a landscape

This spatial arrangement contributes to Société Générale’s image of quality of its implantation in the commune of Fontenay-sous-Bois and beyond.

ACCESS TO LES DUNES

Les Dunes is accessed through a ground-level forecourt located on the West facade close to the RER exit and by the Boulevard De-Lattrede- Tassigny on the lower level. The main access to the site by the forecourt is resolved by an autonomous dome-like structure that resembles a large pergola covered with glass and trellised screens, clearly visible from the transport access. This is the main entrance of Les Dunes, it includes a reception area, visitor badge issuing and a waiting area for visitors.

This dome also maps the lower of the boulevard: it is designed as an internal main street that runs through the centre of the tertiary services device. Fluid and dynamic, this covered pathway leads to the communal areas – fitness, business centre, exhibition halls and restaurants. A battery of escalators, stairways and elevators serves as differentiated access areas leading to the floors of each building.

WORKSPACES

To give a human dimension to workspaces, the architect Anne Démians has particularly focused on three main themes: the light, the quality of the outside view, and the integration of technology to preserve the fluidity of the spaces. Workspaces are light and benefit from very large windows – 4 x 3 – quite unusual in commercial buildings.

Light and views of the exterior (woodland and greenery) are thus peaceful factors of nature, creating an atmosphere conducive to calm and concentration. The facade offers an initial aspect of woven wood with walkways and balconies. Behind them, blinds. Still further behind, large windows guarantee optimal sunlight to each floor framing views of the gardens below.

This creates a kaleidoscope of atmospheres always connected through the materiality that is that of wood.

WORKSTATIONS

These plateaus can be partitioned off every 1m35. These spaces are evolutive and flexible. Respiration for these large areas is provided by generous outdoor terraces whose layout can be converted into meeting places or for other uses. From these «loggias,» employees can enjoy the buildings which by their material become landscapes themselves.

PATIOS

Open to the sky and nestled in the hollow between the buildings (on level -1) the patios are designed as pleasure gardens where persistent plants thrive in a semi-tropical climate, «the valley» is also conducive both to isolation or group meetings. Open to evolving business areas, they suggest new ways of working through their sophisticated design and easy access. The restaurants revolve around garden spaces, linking the interior to the exterior. These are flexible spaces that can, if necessary, also be used as workspaces outside business hours. Alternating strips of wood and colorful plants helps create high quality outdoor spaces with the changing colours of the seasons.

ANNE DÉMIANS, A COMMITTED PROJECT MANAGER

Ten years after creating her agency, Anne Démians ranks among the most respected architects of her generation among French developers and contracting authorities. Her approach inspires civic authorities because they see her as a highly committed professional whose economic pragmatism combined with the quality use of a building – and its possible reconversion – contribute to building the urban landscape of the twenty-first century. As she states, «Cities and urban areas are radiating outwards and opening the way to a different future, depending on whether or not they bring a history and a character with them. The urban impulsion depends on it.»

The project consists in the construction of 90 rental housing units and 2.000 m² of activities on the ground floor. The seven stories building is located on a site overlooking Lausanne with a strong slope that offers a view towards Lake Geneva (Lac Leman).

For a better urban integration of the project, the creation of an opening enables a visual and physical connection between the garden and the street. This new axis structures the building’s implantation in two blocks on the authorized construction area and centralizes the access to the housings. The new promenade is open to local residents during the day, giving access to an equipment in the center of the plot (fitness center or offices) to improve social interactions.

The project proposes a system of external corridors that give access to all apartments, working at every level as a private street with shared spaces for the inhabitants. These circulations benefit from natural lighting and participate as a way to ventilate naturally all the units.

Parking (for cars and two wheels) are located on the basement level. The ground floor accommodates two large entrance halls that give access to the housing units, the shared spaces and the activities as offices, commercial spaces and a fitness facility on two levels. These surfaces are flexible and can be adapted to users’ future needs. The project proposes a diversity of housing typologies on every floor. On the last two levels, two stories houses benefit from an impressive view on the Lake Geneva (Lac Leman). This upper composition brings a domestic scale to the building whereas the beehive structure on the facades transcribes the program.

All apartments benefit from generous outdoor spaces. The South and West facades are split in two to create continuous balconies which offer private outdoor spaces that participate in the control of the sunlight exposure. The wooden structure of the balconies is disconnected from the facades to limit thermal bridges.

Janez Nguyen is an architectural office based in Paris and born from the encounter between Robert Janez and Emmanuel Nguyen. After 10 years of experience in renowned architectural offices and a distinction for the international competition Europan, they took benefit from their complementarity and established their office in 2015.

IMAGO is the winning entry of the City of Montreal’s two-phase competition entitled ‘Vivre le chantier Sainte-Cath!’. St. Catherine Street, an important commercial artery in downtown Montreal is undergoing a four-year infrastructure improvement plan along several blocks, including underground infrastructure upgrades, incorporation of new public transit systems and increasing pedestrian sidewalk area and access. The project seeks to ameliorate the streetscape’s overall appeal, improve its functioning and promote economic growth over the long term. During the construction different segments of the street will be closed to car traffic, however pedestrian traffic and access to all stores will remain functioning. It is inevitable that this period of transformation will have an impact on people’s daily routine and the operation of the city.

The competition therefore seeks creative solutions to minimize the negative impacts of an on-going construction site. The competitors were asked to address the following: change the users’ perception of the work, create an innovative urban experience within the work site, direct the flow of people, reduce disruptions associated with the work, disseminate information regarding the work and its progress and finally, inform users of future developments.

Inspired by a theme of natural sciences and the transformation of an organism from its embryonic state to its final stage, imago, the project proposes a series of temporary biomorphic inflatable structures to shelter, protect, animate, articulate and live the construction site of Sainte-Cath. Through its scale, fluid form and aesthetic purity, IMAGO unfolds with great contrast to its urban environment and the repair work below or beside. IMAGO offers a strong and bold visual identity to reinforce St. Catherine Street’s iconic status in Montreal and beyond.

The intervention consists of a series of modular catenary arches, each composed of an inflatable structure anchored to an approved concrete construction fence. IMAGO adapts to the construction site in several ways depending on the work being performed. When roadway work is occurring, IMAGO spans overtop of the construction site, bringing light and ventilation to the construction site, and guiding pedestrians as they move through the site. When work is being performed along the sidewalks, IMAGO shelters and accompanies pedestrians who now occupy the street, animating their journey through the site or to the different businesses via bridges that overlook the repair work below. The street becomes an immersive environment that can become a gathering point for ephemeral events. Each arch is hinged at the top to allow lateral movement to overlap the work; moving wider when the work is occurring along the street, and narrower when the work is occurring along sidewalks. In all scenarios IMAGO becomes the interface between pedestrians and the construction site.

IMAGO’s light, yet robust design is inspired by the physiology of a butterfly wing; many delicate intermediary members create a strong, yet flexible structure. The diagonal members create diamond voids, some of which are filled with historic images that narrate the evolution of St. Catherine Street and the constant transformation of the city across different epochs. Each historical image is demarcated by a blue filter that remains transparent; the street beyond can still be deciphered chronicling the past and present simultaneously. Where there are no images, the voids create natural ventilation through IMAGO.

The simplicity and modularity of the installation offers a flexibility and versatility both in terms of its sprawling, caterpillar-like nature and ability to adapt to different site conditions. The modules are erected gradually by attaching one to another growing until IMAGO covers the extent of the work being performed. The modularity of IMAGO makes each component affordable; the number of units can be easily multiplied based on the budget. Since the main material is air, the modules can be handled easily and stored in a fraction of their original volume.

IMAGO offers a poetic and versatile strategy in response to the numerous challenges of a construction site. It is a graceful intervention, a distinct insertion that offers users the delicateness of nature in the city. The intervention possesses a great potential to be used as an identity tool, communication tool, operational tool, and experiential tool to re-imagine the construction site.

KANVA’s work elicits an experience, a memory, a reaction., KANVA is the Montreal multidisciplinary collective led by Tudor Radulescu (OAQ LEED PA MRAIC) and Rami Bebawi (OAQ MRAIC RBQ whose work is at the forefront of thinking, imagining, drawing and constructing. Its big ideas, gestures and approach to contemporary issues have gained local, national and international attention. With over ten years of experience designing a range of project types, including student housing, large-scale public art installations, mixed-use buildings, corporate and public spaces, KANVA treats each project as an opportunity to transform the built environment through story-telling. Recipients of numerous awards and recognitions, its team consistently demonstrates architecture’s transformative power through a range of disciplines and scales, from the ephemeral to the institutional.

The mission of the Ville de Montréal’s Bureau du design is to develop the market for, and promote the talents of, Montréal-based designers and architects by advocating processes that call for public commissions, such as design and architecture competitions. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network, of which Montréal is a member as a City of Design, comprises 116 cities in 54 countries and enables creative practitioners in member cities to share experiences, best practices and knowledge on an international scale.

In the residential neighborhood of the Petit-Clamart, this ambitious project includes schools (two elementary schools and two nursery schools) and large sports complex (dojo, gymnasium, tennis courts, and circulation area). The broad trapezium-shaped terrain extends over 5 hectares and offers the opportunity to reconcile two areas, two period urban fabrics based on very different conceptions.

On the south side, the neighborhood of single-family homes spreads out over relatively small city blocks, presenting a soft and repetitive scale. On the north side, a vast neighborhood of social housing rises from a large-scale covered collective space, in a uniform alignment of imposing towers.

Between these two antagonistic cityscapes, the scale of the intervention creates a link through architecture that pacifies their discordant relation, creating three transversal accesses, one of which is a central pedestrian street serving the sports facility and the schools.

The campus site is comprised of two main units: the sports complex, under a vast and unique metal envelope; and the school complex, protected by a landscaped plaza, and which is composed of four schools and their shared areas – lunchroom, recreation areas, a cultural center, and a multi-purpose hall with a separate entrance.

Four schools, mainly on the ground floor, are spread out under a vast green roof, in an inaccessible area but whose calming presence can be viewed and appreciated by all. This semi-intensive green roof, planted as a “flowering prairie,” also ensures excellent thermal insulation, hygrometric comfort, as well as optimal retention of rain water, thereby reducing runoff from the lot. Main bearings on this large site consist of volumes cut through this vast ensemble, emerging from the large green cover, creating occasional double height areas, areas of respiration, and openings toward the sky while also signaling the particular elements of the program located on the first floor.

The sports complex is a landscape/building composed of supple curves. Iimagined as a genuine sports city, its undulating standing seam aluminum envelope also meets the strict technical and aesthetic requirements for design. Touching the ground on its north and south façades, it protects the urban environment from noise pollution.

The geometric complexity of the structure and the roof present interesting technical challenges. These led the architects to make the ambitious and original choice of utilizing cross-laminated timber for the roof’s complex wide span framework, thereby offering the possibility of making large-scale curved box girders.

The framework obtained with these large-scale girders creates a cover of approximately 40m x 100m extending from north to south, and joining the ground at either end where the roof gradually becomes the façade.

The soft and supple outline of the campus creates a new and calm landscape open to its environment. The site as a whole expresses the qualities of a program that organizes shared spaces and shared uses. Thanks to its urban, social and educative characteristics, the program aims to enhance the well-being of the inhabitants of the neighborhood.

]]>http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2016/09/27/trivaux-garenne-campus-in-clamart-france-by-gaetan-le-penhuel-associes-architectes/feed/0The European Council and Council of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium by Philippe SAMYN and PARTNERS architects & engineershttp://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2016/09/24/the-european-council-and-council-of-the-european-union-in-brussels-belgium-by-philippe-samyn-and-partners-architects-engineers/
http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2016/09/24/the-european-council-and-council-of-the-european-union-in-brussels-belgium-by-philippe-samyn-and-partners-architects-engineers/#commentsSat, 24 Sep 2016 12:52:29 +0000http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/?p=366698Article source: Philippe SAMYN and PARTNERS architects & engineers

As a consequence of 2004 European enlargement, the Justus Lipsius building becomes too small for the council of the European1 (hereafter named the Council). According to the treaty of Nice, adopted in 2001, all European Council2 sessions are held in Brussels, which also generates new real estate needs. In order to respond to those, the Belgian State offered the Council to cede block A from the complex “Residence Palace” to make it the future seat of both the European Council and the Council, once this building renovated and adapted to its future owners’ needs.

In other words, the Residence Palace needs to be reorganized to accommodate European Council’s quarterly sessions and EU Council’s bi-weekly ones, as well as other important conferences. It must also include rooms for the Presidency and other high level leaders, rooms for Member States delegates and the General Secretary of the Council, as well as international press representatives.

In this perspective, the Council launches in August 2004 a European architecture and project competition and selects, in January 2005, 25 teams of designers in cooperation with the Belgian Buildings Agency. On September 2nd 2005, the team of architects and engineers composed of Philippe SAMYN and PARTNERS (Lead and Design Partner), with Studio Valle Progettazioni and Buro Happold is designated laureate of a 6 competitors final that takes place from June to September 2005.

The Residence Palace was built between 1922 and 1927 at the initiative of the financier Lucien Kasin and designed by the Swiss architect Michel Polak. The complex is a collective housing experiment under the form of luxurious service flats located next to the city centre. The project will only have a short commercial success and after World War II, the art deco building is converted into ministerial offices by the Belgian State.

An extension with a new facade was built in the years ’60, behind the original building in front of the rue de la Loi – Wetstraat. Later in the years ’80, the Eastern wing is demolished in order to erect the Justus Lipsius building, current seat of the Council.

The original facades, as well as the entrance halls and the corridors on the ground floor are today listed as part of the Belgian cultural heritage.

According to urban planning regulations, the building is extended on the North-East side by two new facades to transform its current “L” shape into a “cube”. This outer area is converted into a glass atrium protecting from the urban dust. It covers the principal entrance as well as a new lantern-shaped volume incorporating the conference rooms.

The shape of this volume follows the minimal required surface for each type of room, as for example the press room (level +1), the smallest 50-persons dining room (level +11), the largest meeting room enabling 250 persons meetings (level +5), other meeting rooms (level +3, +7) and finally the largest dining room for official diners (level +9). Each level of this volume has an elliptic plan with different dimensions but the same centre and the same principal axis.

The structure of this object is rigorously symmetrical although it does not appear so.

The new double facade, made of a harmonised patchwork of re used old oak windows with simple crystal like single glazing (from the different European countries) provides the necessary acoustic barrier from the traffic noise of the Rue de la Loi – Wetstraat and it also offers a first thermal insulation for the inner space.

Indeed, following to UE recommendations about energy savings, many old buildings across Europe will change their window frames for double glazing in the next few years. In the context of a sustainable development approach, it is decided to restore some of those millions of old though still efficient window frames, and re-use them in this project.

This new façade will be both a practical and philosophical statement about the re-use of these traditional constructions elements, expressing the European diversity of cultures.

Moreover, the council wishes this building to be from all points of view an example as far as sustainable development is concerned. This wish is displayed in many aspects of the architectural and technical design. As an example, an umbrella of photovoltaic panels for the electricity production covers both the new and the historical parts, which symbolizes also the link between the present, the past and the future.

Belgium is a country with a less strong link with modernism and rationalism in the 20th century compared to others in Europe. From the post – war period until recently primarily individual housing was stimulated for political reasons which created especially in Flanders a sheer endless suburb connecting quite a few of the big cities.

Still the city of Antwerp had always a tradition in the realisation for high quality small and medium scale apartment buildings especially in the 1930ties, 50ties and 60ties.

Since approximately 15 years also in Antwerp a strong and growing urban renaissance takes place, stimulated by personalities like former mayor Patrick Jansen and former city architect Kristiaan Borret. With enthusiasm and growing success the city faces the contemporary task of creating attractive answers on collective housing. There’s already a few good examples that could have been realized such as for instance from Diener & Diener or David Chipperfield.

Atelier Kempe Thill has already tried in several other competitions to develop a specific answer for a Flemish collective housing architecture. The commission for block 1 in Nieuw Zuid offers the unique opportunity to contribute to these fascinating current developments in Flanders in a substantial way.

The new quarter of Antwerp Nieuw Zuid is the biggest urban extension not only for the city of Antwerp but even for Belgium in general. The area is located directly attached to the city centre in the South next to Richard Rogers’ famous palace of justice. On the territory of a former train station the city intends to build approximately 2000 apartments and 130.000m2 of other program with a high ambition of architectural and urban quality. The urban master plan has been conceived by the Italian office Secchi-Viganò in 2012 on the basis of so called “Striga’s”, an ancient Roman urban typology. The striga represents a medium sized urban block that is not closed but cut open to reach a balanced mixture of a modernist ensembles open space and a 19th century closed block city.

On the ground floor there are shops and public facilities, housing starts basically on the first floor. The buildings are a combination of approximately 6 storey slabs and high – rise towers. The entire development is going to be realized by Triple Living, a leading Belgian company.

The first block

The first building complex has very good spatial conditions with its relation to the river Scheldt and an adjacent park. POLO Architects from Antwerp that is asked to design this project invites Atelier Kempe Thill in autumn 2012 to design a part of the first block where in total 32 apartments with commercial spaces on the ground floor and a two floors underground parking fit in. The intention is a fast design and execution process with by the end of 2015 the first buildings to be delivered to the new inhabitants.

For Atelier Kempe Thill this is an ideal moment to finally get the occasion to develop a first housing project to be realized in Flanders. What kind of housing quality should be offered to the new middle class searching for an apartment? How should a high quality city extension look finally and how should the shops be integrated?

What kind of materialisations should be chosen in an area with intensely used public spaces and the love of the Flemish for stone architecture?

Panoramic housing around a central core

To access the building two central cores are chosen that contain stairs and elevators. To position such access cores was at first glance rather difficult because it had to match the requirements of the parking garage as well as those of the ground floor with shops at the same time and the ambition of Atelier Kempe Thill to avoid access cores in the outside façade of the building. Also should they be positioned in a way that allows as good as possible to produce flexible floor plans for the apartments as well and allow a maximum differentiation in the sizes of the apartments, and all that finally in a depth of the actual building of 14 metres.

The basic partition allows a constellation of four apartments per floor accessed by one core. This constellation is varied in the south part. Here there are only three apartments, at the head façade there’s only one apartment profiting from three orientations.

Due to the asymmetric positioning of the core in relation to the width of the building the east side offers small studios, contrary to the west side where bigger, family oriented apartments are placed. The apartments can also be unified following the “kangaroo” – principle due to flexible separation walls between them.

On the top – floor there’s another variation by penthouses in a set – back.

The final result is a more or less traditional system, neutral and modest but still astonishingly able to adapt on the needs of the 21st century on variation and flexibility.

The master plan of Secchi – Viganò has as one very inspiring aspect the idea that each building should offer large outside spaces on strategic positions of the building that can extend the actual building limits up to 3 metres. These “Bigger & Cheaper“ called outside spaces that are inspired by the concepts of the French architects Lacaton & Vassal can be set up as balconies but also be closed by glass doors to set them up as winter gardens and should add an unexpected quality to the apartments.

Atelier Kempe Thill takes this opportunity literal and occupies the east as well the west side of the building entirely with winter gardens. The winter gardens have an average length of 10 metres and a depth of 2,6 metres. That way a 123 m2 apartment has as additional space 60 m2 winter garden or a 40 m2 studio is combined with 30 m2 extra winter garden. The apartments can offer with such generous outside spaces a relaxed suburban life quality in an urban density.

The actually insulated part of the building is conceived according to passive house standards. This part can be seen as the winter part that is extended in its use by the winter garden as a seasonal buffer space. This way each house offers a summer and a winter part that is also inspired by traditional Japanese houses. City inhabitants can live during the warm season outside by opening the sliding doors, in the colder seasons with closed sliding doors they can still use the terraces because they are protected against wind and rain.

The winter gardens that entirely cover the insulated parts of the houses are also reacting on the catholic context in Belgium. Unless their fully glazed façades to the outside the winter gardens offer a buffer to give more privacy to the actually thermally insulated part of the house.

Flemish culture is a very physical culture very much influenced by a Burgundian love for the pleasures of life and where one can still feel even in the cities a certain rural attitude. Solid brick is the typical basic materialization of buildings in Flanders as a nearly unavoidable circumstance being expressed in the common saying that “every Belgian is born with a brick in his stomach”.

Atelier Kempe Thill searched for an architectural expression that could create a dialogue between this more traditional view on things and a possible more modernist orientation towards the future at the same time. The slightly higher budget compared to more common circumstances allowed in the end a very solid materialization hard to find within the contemporary condition of European housing.

Technically the façade expression also has to solve the Belgian fire rules that consider winter gardens as inside spaces with the consequence that along the façade a distance of 1metre fire proof façade has to be respected between neighbours, horizontally as well as vertically.

For all these reasons the façades are set up in prefabricated concrete elements. Beams and columns have sections of 60 cm height x 40 cm depth to fulfil the distance of 1 metre for the fire department. The loadbearing beams along the east and west façades are up to 11,5m long and create winter gardens of an unusual length. This length assures that the relatively fat dimensions of the concrete elements are brought back into a harmonious proportion to their total size and add a refreshing monumental scale to the building as a total.

On the head façades large scale non – load bearing concrete elements of partly 5,6 metres x 3,2 metres create a special quality out of the fact that the percentage of glass in the insulating part of the façade is limited.

For Atelier Kempe Thill it is the first time to work with a façade entirely made out of prefabricated concrete elements. The concrete is chosen in anthracite colour and with a smooth and polished surface. Each element is custom – made. The dimensions of the elements even allowed to integrate rainwater pipes and at the very end of the execution foldable fire ladders into the columns that had been demanded all of a sudden by the fire department.

The concrete elements are combined with large single glass sliding doors for the winter gardens that on the fourth floor reach up to 3,2 metres by 3,5 metres per element.

To give the winter gardens a liveable and cosy atmosphere they are in the interior entirely covered by a wooden cladding. The “woodiness” of the terraces also contributes to the appearance at the outside giving the building a welcoming vibrancy balancing the formal monumentality of the concrete elements and the sliding doors.

With this concept and all its ingredients the project tries to offer a modern and light life style with at the same time an architectural answer to the more physical character of Belgian culture.